Month: June 2007

Tuesday’s sentencing to 30 months in prison of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby by a federal judge for lying to government investigators about his role in leaking the identity of a CIA operative marks the latest in a series of blows to Vice President Dick Cheney. Sometimes known as "Cheney’s Cheney," Libby served as the vice … Continue reading “Aide’s Sentence Caps Star-Crossed Year for Cheney”

Any doubts that the U.S. is engaged in a colonial adventure in Iraq – because we’re "liberators," not imperialists – ought to be permanently dispelled now that top administration officials are holding up the "Korean model" as a framework for our future role. What we have to look forward to in the "Korean model" is … Continue reading “Iraq and the Korean ‘Model’”

Following revelations of a George W. Bush administration policy to hold Iran responsible for any al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. that could be portrayed as planned on Iranian soil, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski warned last week that Washington might use such an incident as a pretext to bomb Iran. Brzezinski, the national security … Continue reading “Could an al-Qaeda Attack Trigger War With Iran?”

Soon after the invasion of Iraq was launched, war supporters and critics alike, in a bow to the Vietnam era, began to speak referentially of the “Q-word” – for “quagmire,” of course. By now, Iraq has had that administration-inspired “Q” hung firmly around its neck, but what of the engine pushing it, the Pentagon? Perhaps … Continue reading “The Pentagon’s Blank Check”

The war in Iraq is lost. This fact is widely recognized by American military officers and has been recently expressed forcefully by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq during the first year of the attempted occupation. Winning is no longer an option. Our best hope, Sanchez says, is "to stave … Continue reading “If You Think Bush Is Evil Now, Wait Until He Nukes Iran”

Last week, Andrew Speaker – an Atlanta, Ga., personal injury lawyer with XDR-TB, a form of tuberculosis that is resistant to almost all antibiotics – created a big health scare by exposing fellow travelers to a dangerous infection. Speaker flew from Atlanta to Paris on Air France on May 12 for his wedding and honeymoon, … Continue reading “Unprepared for Bioterrorism”

Abraham Lincoln, it would seem, is in the midst of a career revival. In recent years, the 16th president has been praised by the likes of author Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Lincoln boosterism has been prominently featured on high-traffic political blogs such as Power Line. Amid this torrent of praise, it is worth examining the … Continue reading “Lincoln, Civil Liberties, and 9/11”

The Bush administration has decided its new model for a long-term solution in Iraq is Korea. It’s an attempt to stifle the inevitable comparisons of the Iraq quagmire to Vietnam and a way to justify the eventual reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq (to take the heat off Republican candidates in the 2008 elections), while … Continue reading “Korea the Model”